By James Mackenzie
BERLIN, Aug 26 (Reuters) – When Ulrich Siegmund was studying Business Psychology around a decade ago, he learned a lesson about messaging that has served him well in his quest to become the first member of the far-right AfD party to lead a state government in Germany.
The 35-year-old from the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt has been the sunny, smiling face of the party, which has been polling at around 41% ahead of the September 6 election, giving him a real chance of becoming the state’s next premier.
Siegmund, who joined the AfD, or Alternative for Germany, in its early phase more than a decade ago, said his business course taught him the importance of appealing to the basic senses of consumers to establish a positive mood.
“Where it smells nice, statistically speaking, people simply stay longer, spend more time engaging with the product – whatever it may be,” he told Ben Berndt, a podcast host seen by some as Germany’s answer to the American Joe Rogan.
He set up a company selling systems that diffuse mood-enhancing scents to customers ranging from shops to old people’s homes and he has displayed the same instinct for establishing a positive mood in selling his party’s message to voters.
The weekly news magazine Der Spiegel dubbed Siegmund “Germany’s most dangerous man” for his ability to put a friendly face on a party the Saxony-Anhalt office of Germany’s domestic intelligence agency classifies as belonging to the extremist far-right and hostile to Germany’s basic democratic order.
ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL FOR MONTHS
Stylishly dressed in slimline suits with a neatly trimmed beard and fashionable haircut, “Ulli” Siegmund has been on the campaign trail for months, wooing voters in towns and village halls and constantly updating his hundreds of thousands of social media followers.
He has been less relaxed in media appearances with mainstream journalists. But his approachable style and his easy touch with the public have brought voters flocking to his campaign meetings, backed by a local party organization that has avoided the bitter internal splits seen in other AfD branches.
“There’s a great mood of renewal in Saxony-Anhalt that we see in every village and dialogue that we have, talking to people everywhere,” he told Reuters in an interview.
He avoids the harsh rhetoric of colleagues such as Bjoern Hoecke, the AfD chief in the neighbouring state of Thuringia, twice convicted of using a banned Nazi slogan, or the open disdain for adversaries of party leader Alice Weidel.
But he dismisses the far-right label as an example of what he says is the political establishment’s anti-democratic determination to prevent alternative voices from gaining ground. He says voters have paid no attention to it.
Despite its strong showing in some past regional elections, AfD has yet to enter a state or federal government because all other major parties have ruled out cooperation with it, a policy known in Germany as the “firewall”.
NATIONALIST POLICIES
Ulrich Siegmund grew up in the picturesque town of Tangermuende on the Elbe river in the north of the state, “a town straight out of a picture book, as if you’d opened a book and everything had stood still,” he told Berndt.
His party’s programme is suffused with a vision of Germany under threat from enemies that range from the out-of-touch “old parties” and their media accomplices to foreign criminals profiting from lax policing and a generation of leftists from the 1968 student revolts preaching gender ideology.
He criticises Germany’s asylum policies and green energy initiatives that he says have driven up prices, and says Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s support for Ukraine has needlessly set Germany against Russia and pushed up the cost of oil and gas.
Critics from the other parties accuse the AfD of encouraging nationalist policies that echo Germany’s Nazi past and fomenting hostility towards immigrants and anyone it considers opposed to its vision of Germany.
They say its aim of attracting politically sympathetic specialists to work in a future AfD-led Saxony-Anhalt government points to plans for radical changes to the public administration and say the party has shown it will clamp down on opposition if it comes to power.
Saxony-Anhalt state premier Sven Schulze has accused his rival of planning a “political purge” if he wins power and accuses him of simplistic slogans that ignore real problems ranging from a shortage of qualified workers to strengthening schools and universities.
“The AfD is a party that is capable of identifying many problems, without ultimately solving them,” Schulze told Reuters.
Siegmund himself dismisses the accusations and says the party has laid out a detailed list of policies based on commonsense ideas to preserve Germany’s identity that are supported by a broad mass of voters.
He has pushed that message relentlessly in the campaign, and so far, it has cut through with many voters.
If successful, he says the campaign in Saxony-Anhalt will be the first step towards winning power at national level in the next elections due in 2029.
(Reporting by James Mackenzie; Editing by Alex Richardson)
